Sen. Rand Paul is free to use the Senate gym again — once it reopens.
Paul announced Tuesday that he has tested negative for COVID-19 just over two weeks after finding out he had been diagnosed with the virus, adding that he is now volunteering at a local hospital.
“I appreciate all the best wishes I have received,” the Kentucky Republican wrote on Twitter. “I have been retested and I am negative. I have started volunteering at a local hospital to assist those in my community who are in need of medical help, including Coronavirus patients. Together we will overcome this!”
Paul, who was a physician before coming to the Senate, was lambasted for spending the week he was awaiting his coronavirus results interacting with other lawmakers and aides and using Capitol Hill facilities.
The staunch libertarian defended himself at the time amid the controversy, saying he had no symptoms of the virus while he roamed the Senate halls.
“For those who want to criticize me for lack of quarantine, realize that if the rules on testing had been followed to a tee, I would never have been tested and would still be walking around the halls of the Capitol,” Paul said in a statement after his diagnosis.
“The current guidelines would not have called for me to get tested nor quarantined. It was my extra precaution, out of concern for my damaged lung, that led me to get tested,” he continued.
Paul was the first and, thus far, the only senator to be diagnosed with coronavirus.